They endured violence and cruelty to further the cause of votes and equality for women. Ahead of the release of the movie Suffragette, we asked writers to reflect on the meanings and modern relevance of the militants’ direct action

Rereading: In Khirbet Khizeh, his novella of the 1948 war, the Israeli writer S Yizhar sought to preserve the memory of the Palestinian nakba.
Jacqueline Rose on a haunting tale that still stirs intense controversy

Since the founding of Israel 60 years ago this week, novelists have challenged the rhetoric of the state, and out of such tension some of the nation's most urgent fiction has been born. Jacqueline Rose traces the literature of this troubled land